Striker Daryl Murphy will miss the trip to face his former loan club Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, Larsen Touré and Luke Varney - another one-time Owls loanee - are both doubts and Teddy Bishop won’t be involved, while ex-Wednesday midfielder Giles Coke has been ruled out for the season, however, Andre Dozzell will be on the bus travelling to South Yorkshire.
"He’s been training, he’s no good for Saturday,” manager Mick McCarthy said regarding Murphy, who suffered a calf injury while away with the Republic of Ireland.
"I think he’s making noises that if he’s going to come back, Tuesday will be the game for him.
"There weren’t any other issues up until we went out and trained and Larsen Touré limped off with a bit of a groin and Reg Varney came off as well with a tight hamstring. We were fine up until that moment. We’ll see how they are.”
Regarding Coke, he added: "Giles is on crutches, he had his knee operated on. It’ll be next season the first time he’ll be back.
"He injured it in training and has subsequently had an operation on it and won’t be back until pre-season. He [hasn’t really had too chances] and it’s a nasty injury he’s got.’
McCarthy says he knows nothing of Liverpool’s reported interest in 16-year-old midfielder Andre Dozzell and says he’ll make the trip to Hillsborough.
"I would imagine there’s lots of people involved looking at our best young players and Doz is one of them, he goes away and plays with England,” he said.
"You can’t hide them, you can’t put them under lock and key but I’ve no idea about Liverpool or anybody else and I’ve certainly had no contact with anybody.
"He’ll be travelling with us on Saturday, he’ll travel to Sheffield Wednesday and not for any other reason other than I think he’s doing great and he’s probably due an opportunity. We’ll see over the next few games.
Teddy Bishop put in a quiet display in the U21s against the Owls on Monday, as Town won 1-0, and McCarthy says that was indicative of the 19-year-old’s current lack of match fitness.
"He’s miles away from playing in the first team, no, not miles away because he’s training great with us, but on 60x40 or half-size pitches it's one thing, and of course you get your breather and you don’t have to be in your shape,” he continued.
"He is training very, very well and I’m delighted with him. He won’t be involved this weekend, he’ll be playing with the U21s on Monday at Sheffield United and that’s with a view that he will get 90 minutes I hope and we will see him start a [first-team] game before the end of the season.
"He’s no problem with his injuries, but it’s 12 months since he played properly almost, he hasn’t played this season and he’d had little niggles before last season when he was fully fit, so the last thing I want him to do is be missing pre-season again.
"If we get him to play, it’ll be wonderful, but if we can’t and he has to just finish the season without having started a game and he’s fully fit and he can have his holiday and do his programme for the summer and then do a full pre-season, then we can look forward to him next season.
"If we got him back and we’ve got Didzy back, then we’ve got some quality back in the team.”
McCarthy continues to feel it’s very unlikely that loanee Ryan Fraser will return to Portman Road before the end of the season with the Scotland U21 international undergoing his rehab from his hamstring injury at parent club AFC Bournemouth.
"Ryan I doubt very much will be coming back. [Town physio] Matt Byard was speaking to him, I believe, and I think their physio and he’d have to be 100 per cent right.”
Midfielder Luke Hyam is banned for one game for his red card against Brentford last weekend.